Happy Holi!

My attendance at a Holi festival might win “most interesting birthday list item” for 2014. Holi is a Hindu tradition in which people gather to celebrate the coming of spring and throw colored power all over each other. Last weekend, Abby and I walked into a dive-y Fenway bar and were handed a pink ticket. We had no idea what was going on. Which is so much fun sometimes!

There was quite a crowd of people eating and listening to music. I looked around for a sign of the colored powder to no avail. We got a beer and ate some good Indian food. As we were finishing our meal, someone announced that we were to head out a particular exit. We followed the crowd into an empty garage area next door and found our way to the powder station. We exchanged our tickets for packages of powder. People were throwing powder at each other and up in the air. Friends threw at it each other; perfect strangers threw it at each other. Pink and yellow and green and blue.

A DJ played music and people danced while throwing powder. It was goofy and fun and everyone was HAPPY. Until Abby got beaned in the eye with powder…that wasn’t happy. But she rallied and got right back into the fray.

The powder really did get everywhere. Why did I bring a wool coat with me? It’s at the drycleaners. It washed out of my jeans and cardigan but not the white shirt. But I wasn’t expecting it to come out of the white shirt. People are encouraged to wear white shirts so the colors are shown in all their glory.

I went to a few stores on my way home afterward and had some interesting conversations. The Bed Bath and Beyond checkout person prefaced our conversation by saying, “I’m almost afraid to ask.” And a college kid I passed on the street asked me if I had been murdered.

Holi is awesome and I am so ready for SPRING!